AMD Challenges Nvidia’s Dominance With South Korean Chip Negotiations

TLDR

• AMD is negotiating the sale of 10,000 MI355 AI chips to South Korean startup Upstage.
• AMD CEO Lisa Su convened with Upstage CEO Sung Kim in Seoul last week to negotiate the agreement.
• Upstage seeks to broaden its chip sources beyond Nvidia, which controls Korea’s AI chip market.
• Upstage is participating in a state-sponsored AI competition dubbed the “AI Squid Game.”
• The firm is developing a 200-billion-parameter AI model in preparation for a summer assessment phase.

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(SeaPRwire) –   AMD is negotiating to provide 10,000 of its MI355 AI accelerators to South Korean AI startup Upstage — an agreement that could represent a major victory for the chipmaker in Asia’s rapidly expanding AI sector.

Korean AI startup Upstage is in discussions with AMD to buy 10,000 of its latest AI accelerators as part of an effort to bring large-scale compute into the country https://t.co/PmSjPo7i85

— Bloomberg (@business) March 23, 2026

Upstage CEO Sung Kim verified the negotiations following his meeting with AMD CEO Lisa Su in Seoul last week. “Korea currently relies heavily on Nvidia chips, but we’re looking to broaden our portfolio to include alternatives like AMD’s,” Kim told Bloomberg Television on Monday.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., AMD

These negotiations arise as AI computing demand surges throughout Asia, with worries about Nvidia’s availability and costs driving firms to consider other options.

For AMD, securing a 10,000-chip contract would represent more than just revenue — it would establish a presence in a market currently ruled by Nvidia.

AMD Challenges Nvidia’s Grip in Korea

Upstage is among four teams competing in a government-supported contest to develop South Korea’s premier national AI model. The competition — nicknamed the “AI Squid Game” after the Netflix series — operates under the supervision of South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT.

Participants undergo assessment every six months, with top performers gaining access to additional high-end Nvidia GPUs. South Korea intends to choose two finalists by early next year.

To remain competitive, Upstage is constructing a large language model featuring approximately 200 billion parameters, aiming for the upcoming summer evaluation round. Such a workload demands substantial computing infrastructure.

Utilizing AMD’s chips would enable Upstage to obtain that capacity while decreasing its reliance on a sole provider.

Upstage Targets Cost-Effective AI at Scale

In addition to the competition, Upstage is focused on global expansion. The firm is targeting markets such as the UAE and Vietnam with “sovereign AI” systems — models that operate within national boundaries to maintain local data and infrastructure.

Efficiency is central to this strategy. As more affordable AI models from China gain global momentum, Upstage is striving to provide high-performance outcomes at a competitive cost. A combination of AMD and Nvidia hardware could assist in achieving that equilibrium.

Should the agreement materialize, it would serve as a genuine test of whether AMD’s MI355 can perform effectively in a challenging, high-stakes production setting.

AMD shares declined approximately 1.92% on Sunday. Wall Street’s consensus rating for AMD stands at Moderate Buy, derived from 21 Buy and 8 Hold ratings during the past three months. The average analyst price target is $284.96, suggesting potential upside of approximately 41% from current levels.